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Cultural translation of a domestic violence intervention for small children: key policy and practice directions

  • Erica Bell EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: January 22, 2014

Abstract

Background: This qualitative study responds to recent calls for innovation in domestic violence research in a review, which concluded that the field is dominated by studies that are quantitative and do not take a strong client and social work perspective. It examines Australian child and family support practitioners’ perceptions of cultural translation of an activity-based play intervention for small children exposed to domestic and family violence.

Methods: The participants consisted of 335 practitioners, 178 of whom worked with culturally diverse and/or indigenous client groups. Analysis of response sheets involved elements of configurational case-based analysis, computational textual analysis, and critical discourse analysis.

Results: Language associated with cultural or indigenous concepts occurred with 3% and 5% frequencies, respectively, in 8494 instances of 39 concepts found in practitioner responses.

Conclusions: The “order of discourse” in this practitioner language offers theoretical understandings of in-practice challenges of cultural translation of interventions. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research methods, theory, and practice in domestic and family violence intervention.


Corresponding author: Erica Bell, PhD, Associate Professor, Deputy Director, University Department of Rural Health, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia, Phone: +61 (0)3 6226 7377, Fax: +61 (0)3 6226 1952, E-mail:

Thanks are owed to Nell Kuilenburg, Development and Research Manager at The Salvation Army, Tasmania, for her valuable advice on key aspects of the project, particularly her oversight of the data collection. Thanks are also owed to Harry Rolf, research assistant, for supplying Table 1 used in this report, using a dataset designed by the author of this paper and supplied by the research participants.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. Research funding played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

Research funding: This paper is based on an independent report provided by the author to the contracting client, The Salvation Army Tasmania, which funded this research.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

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Received: 2013-8-11
Accepted: 2013-10-13
Published Online: 2014-1-22
Published in Print: 2015-2-1

©2015 by De Gruyter

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